2nd Qualifying Round – Curzon Ashton V Lancaster City

Our blog seems to be living a healthy life at the moment.  We have been visited by lots of Marine FC fans. I now want to thank Curzon Ashton for giving our blog a mention on their website.  This is our second website promise and I have received a lot of traffic from Curzon Ashton fans this week. Welcome to any Curzon fans that are new to our blog. I've also had a recent surge in views from the USA, so I welcome the USA soccer fans too. 

In update news I am still waiting for Bev’s unofficial professional photographs from the Extra Preliminary Round game between St Helens Town and Ashton Athletic from the 17^th August 2013.  I have received correspondence to say that they will be sent over this week.  

Let’s get to business:-

It is the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup 2013/14, and in this round teams that are 5 divisions lower than the Premiership big boys are entered.   Our winner Curzon Ashton from the 1^st Qualifying Round has drawn a home tie against Lancaster City.  160 teams will fight it out during this round and teams from the Conference North and Conference South have entered the war.   

     

V

Lancaster is a historical City in the North West of England. It was originally built on the site of a Roman encampment that guarded a crossing over the River Lune. It later became a prosperous port from the proceeds of the slave trade and Lancaster Castle was built to keep Scottish invaders at bay. It has a Georgian Town Hall and various museums of interest. The City is very close to the coastal town of Morcambe (where Eric Morcambe was born and home to his statue).

Lancaster has a University with an excellent academic reputation. The actor Andy Serkis (of King Kong and Gollum fame) studied at the University and he was a member of the Duke’s Playhouse theatre in Lancaster.   

Lancaster Town FC was formed in 1911, and in 1937 it changed to Lancaster City FC following that year’s granting of the Royal Charter.  The team plays in the Evo-Stik First Division North and they are currently in 4^th place with 14^th points from 6 games. Curzon Ashton are top of the same league with 18 points from 6 games. Both teams are undefeated in the league this season, so the game should be close. Curzon has won all their games so far and they are the home team - I would make them favourites to win the tie but the FA Cup may disagree on match day - Saturday 28th September 2013 .   

As you can see from the map, we are travelling back the 52 Miles from The Arriva Stadium (B - Marine FC’s ground) to Tameside Stadium (A - Curzon Ashton’s ground).  Our FA Cup journey has travelled 140 Miles in four rounds from its current home in Wigan to Curzon, via Ashton, Curzon and Crosby.